Senate Race Pivotal

2004 VOTERS' GUIDE - REPUBLICANS

4 With Different Backgrounds Back President's Policies

The top four hopefuls in the tight contest to be Florida's Republican candidate for the U.S. Senate nomination, predictably, have similar views.

Johnnie Byrd, Doug Gallagher, Mel Martinez and Bill McCollum all have stayed loyal to the president and nearly all of his policies.

They favor lower taxes to boost the economy. They support George Bush on Iraq and terrorism. They want more accountability in education.

But they differ on the details and their backgrounds.

Byrd, the state House speaker from Plant City, calls himself the most conservative of the bunch.

Gallagher, a Coral Gables businessman who has put $5.9 million of his own money in his campaign, emphasizes his outsider status.

And the two front-runners, both from Central Florida, have played up their experience.

McCollum, of Longwood, says his 20 years in Congress gives him a leg up in an election year focused on national security. He narrowly trails Martinez in the polls.

Martinez returned this year to Orange County, where he was county chairman before a three-year stint as U.S. housing secretary. His campaign has touted his closeness with the president to make him the most viable Republican candidate in November.

Republican voters will choose a nominee from those four and three others Tuesday for the seat held by Democrat Bob Graham, who is retiring.

TERRORISM/WAR

All of the candidates have taken a hard-line stance to battle terrorism and support the war in Iraq. All agree that the invasion of Iraq was based on the best information then available.

McCollum and Martinez want to extend the USA Patriot Act so that intelligence agencies have less restrictions on gathering information that could prove critical in preventing future attacks. Byrd wants to expand its powers.

They want more funding for old-fashioned "human intelligence," such as spies, and possibly more money for an increase in U.S. troops.

McCollum cites his congressional years as a founder of the House task force on terrorism and member of the Intelligence Committee.

He said he has no doubt that former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein possessed chemical and biological weapons at one time. That regime, he said, threatened the United States because of the perception that outlaws could do as they pleased because Americans were unwilling to confront them or fight.

"Terrorism is directed at us in a false, misguided hope that we will leave the entire Muslim world," McCollum said. "It may take a long time, but we absolutely have to win the war on terrorism to counter that."

McCollum, who spent 19 years in the Navy and Reserve, has called for NATO to continue helping train Iraqi forces to police the country, so that over time, some American forces can be shifted to other hot spots.

Specifically, he said the United States must take strong stances against Iran and North Korea so that the unstable countries do not have nuclear weapons to sell on the black market.

He also wants a larger active-duty military force to relieve what he says is an overextended National Guard.

Martinez has said the fastest way to ensure victory in Iraq is to support American troops with a growing number of Iraqi soldiers. In a rare break with Bush, Martinez said he thinks it was a mistake to dismantle the entire Iraqi army and would support efforts to bring back more of those units.

Martinez has called for caution in other steps, such as adopting recommendations from the Sept. 11 commission on ways to battle terrorism.

Though he supports some form of intelligence czar, Martinez said the job should not be decided in the heat of an election for fear politics will override effectiveness of the post.

"It is a mistake to adopt such large changes without review," Martinez said. "I would say we rely on our existing infrastructure while we develop better infrastructure over time."

Byrd, whose daughter flies jets for the Navy, supports shifting more money to intelligence services and to help Iraq set up a free society. He supports an intelligence czar only if the person has no authority over the military.

Gallagher, too, has called for a move to help Iraq to develop into a free country with democratic elections. He also wants a renewed effort to track the funding of terrorist organizations as a way to disrupt them, as well as restrictions on entering the United States for residents of countries that harbor terrorists.

HEALTH CARE

The idea of allowing at least some Americans to legally import prescription drugs from Canada and elsewhere has universal support from the candidates, with some contrasts.

Martinez, who has made his relationship with President Bush a cornerstone of his campaign, thinks the Bush-backed plan for prescription-drug benefits under Medicare needs only minor tinkering and should be given more time to develop.